Sunday, March 9, 2008

Through the life of this blog productivity and efficiency are bound to be of major focus, and any study of these concepts would not be complete without a working knowledge of the method of GTD, or "Getting Things Done". In fact, some would say it would be futile.

We're not about to do a detailed analysis of GTD in this post... we'll get into some of the finer points in future posts, and there are already plenty of great resources out on the great interwebs that can go through all the various ins and outs. But, if you are completely new to GTD, here's what you need to know to get started:

Definition:GTD is an "action management method," created by productivity consultant David Allen. At the heart of the GTD philosophy is the mindset that a person will be most productive by moving tasks out of the mind and recording them somewhere. By doing this our brains are freed from the burden of remembering all sorts of detailed minutia, and can instead focus on doing actual tasks and, you guessed it, getting things done.

Resources:To read up on the method, check out these links below and absorb yourself in endless hours of reading material... not while you're at work though (ok, maybe while you're at work):

Culture:In the years since GTD first made its public appearance, an entire culture of all-things-productivity seemingly came out of the woodwork: Merlin Mann introduced his hipster PDA, Moleskine journals became the new Trapper Keeper, Lifehacker and other GTD-minded blogs emerged, and productivity web-apps like Remember the Milk began to proliferate.

It won't be our goal to become the be-all end-all resource on GTD, but we'll do our best to keep you up to speed on the latest trends, and hopefully as a result, help you be more productive.

How We Use GTD:GTD is core to how we ride here at Corporate Hack. Sure we're sarcastic and don't take work all too seriously, but it's because we take GTD very seriously... it helps us prioritize and categorize so we don't have to spend endless days running around worrying about things that don't matter.

At the same time everyone implements GTD in unique and different ways, often using a kitset approach. In coming weeks we'll post on some of the personal ways we get things done, and will be sure to provide links here below for future reference.